Washington- US (PANA) -- At least 20,000 out of the 50,000 refugees expected to enter the United States in 2004 will be from the African continent, the director of the NGO Catholic Charities Refugees, Becky Jordan, revealed Monday in Washington D. Full text...

Oru- Nigeria (PANA) -- The UN refugee agency, UNHCR Monday repatriated some 170 Sierra Leoneans from the Oru Camp in south-west Nigeria to Freetown, bringing the total number of those so far returned to 278 since December 2003. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- A tripartite meeting between Tanzania, Burundi and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) started here Tuesday with focus on the plight of Burundi refugees in neighbouring countries, particularly Tanzania. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner Kamel Morjane is on the second day of his five-day visit to Sudan where he is discussing the potential return to south Sudan of 600,000 refugees who fled to neighbouring countries during the 21-year civil war. Full text...

Kinshasa- RD Congo (PANA) -- Even as its nationals flee violence in the east of the country, DR Congo currently hosts 403,348 refugees from neighbouring states, the permanent secretary at the National Commission for Refugees, Rigobert Moupondo Mafundji indicated Monday in a statement. Full text...

Oru- Nigeria (PANA) -- A Nigerian government team left for neighbouring Cameroon Sunday to help repatriate some 17,000 Nigerians who took refuge in that country following clashes between Fulani herdsmen and local farmers in northern Taraba State in 2001. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- African countries generating refugees should provide legal and political guarantees for the safety of returnees and internally displaced persons, representatives of the African Union (AU) member States and UN agencies said in a declaration here Monday. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- More than 29,000 DR Congo refugees fleeing violence in the east of the country, have arrived in neighbouring Burundi in the past two weeks, according to officials in Bujumbura. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- About 40 Rwandan Hutu refugees based in Congo will be repatriated by end of June, the director of the Congolese National Assistance Committee for Refugees (CENAR) Christophe Ackondzo announced here. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has unveiled a 100-million US dollar resettlement plan to help avert a looming crisis as Sudanese refugees prepare to return home at the end of 21 years of fighting between the Khartoum government and southern separatists. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- The UN High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) has resumed the voluntary repatriation of 500 Angolan asylum seekers from Meheba refugee camp in north-western Zambia, with the support of the International Organisation for Migration. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- More than 2,800 Congolese refugees have arrived in Burundi since the latest eruption of violence in Bukavu, south-eastern DR Congo, sources close to the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said in Paris Monday. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- Hundreds of DR Congolese refugees continue to flee to north-western Burundi, running away from clashes going on between rebel and loyalist soldiers in the country's eastern towns for the past two weeks, administrative and humanitarian sources in the region told PANA. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- Some 265 refugees arrived Thursday in Makamba, Burundi from Tanzania, and would stay put until early next week when they would be transported to their respective villages in the southern province Rutan, official sources said. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, with the support of the International Organisation for Migration, will next week resume the voluntary repatriation of remaining Angolan refugees from refugee camps in Eastern, Western and Northwestern provinces of Zambia. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Assistant UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Kamel Morjane, has reiterated the UN agency's commitment to reducing the number of refugees in Africa by half before the end of 2005. Full text...

Kigali- Rwanda (PANA) -- About 3,000 Tutsis originating from eastern DR Congo have sought refuge in Cyangugu, southern Rwanda, to escape persecution following clashes in Bukavu, the administrative headquarters of South-Kivu last Wednesday, sources have said here. Full text...

Monrovia- Liberia (PANA) -- Some 85 of the 340 Liberian refugees, who were rescued from a distressed ferry in the Ivorian waters returned home Wednesday on a UN refugee agency, UNHCR flight. Full text...

Porto Novo- Benin (PANA) -- The Beninese Parliament announced has announced the hosting of a conference on "the challenges of protection and solutions to the refugee issue in Africa" in Cotonou from 1-3 June. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The number of Burundians remaining in refugee camps in Tanzania has dropped below 300,000 for the first time since 1998, but nearly half a million Burundians now live elsewhere in Tanzania, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenya will assume full responsibility for all refugees living within its borders once a refugee bill, now in its final stages, is enacted in Parliament, Vice President Moody Awori said Tuesday. Full text...

New York- UN (PANA) -- UN refugee agency, UNHCR Friday appealed for urgent new funds to meet the "desperate" needs of more than 120,000 Sudanese who fled into eastern Chad from the fighting in Sudan's western Darfur region. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that tens of thousands of Angolan refugees set to return home face further hardships due to an acute shortage of funding faced by the UN agency. Full text...

Oru- Nigeria (PANA) -- The decision by former Liberian warlord Yormie Johnson to bankroll the repatriation of 140 Liberian refugees in Nigeria has sparked a row, with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and National Commission for Refugees in Nigeria dissociating themselves from the action. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Tuesday began a two-day workshop for its officials from Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe to map out new strategies to deal with issues related to sex and gender-based violence, and HIV/AIDS in refugee camps. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenyan Vice President Moody Awori Tuesday said that conflicts between refugees and the communities where they live have been minimised after the government ensured that the same services it offered refugees also benefited the nearby communities. Full text...

Conakry- Guinea(PANA) -- The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers is in Guinea, on a visit that would include a tour of camps for refugees from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d'Ivoire. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will assist in repatriating African refugees as a first step towards making the agency's assistance more field-oriented, JICA president Sadako Ogata said here Thursday. Full text...

Luanda- Angola (PANA) -- The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) has earmarked 8 million US dollars for the second phase this year of the repatriation of more than 300,000 Angolan refugees living in neighbouring countries, sources at the agency indicated here at the weekend. Full text...

Monrovia- Liberia (PANA) -- The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) has commenced repatriation of over 300 Liberian refugees stranded for several months along the Mali-Guinea border en route home from refuge in Ghana, press reports said here Monday. Full text...

Kampala- Uganda (PANA) -- Recent rebel infiltration and attacks in north-western Uganda have forced 20,000 people, mainly Sudanese refugees, to flee for safety from their camps and homes in Adjumani District, 600 km north-west of Kampala, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in Kampala Monday. Full text...

News York- UN (PANA) -- Following an urgent appeal last week for more funds to prepare for the return of an estimated 150,000 Liberian refugees, the UN refugee agency announced Tuesday that the United States has donated $11 million, but the agency was still $25 million short of its goal. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Vice President Moody Awori said Wednesday that Kenya was working closely with other countries and regional organizations to find a lasting solution to the refugee problem in Africa, particularly in the horn of Africa. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- Some 165 refugees from Congo/Brazzaville have voluntarily returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where they had been living since 1998, official sources said in Kinshasa. Full text...

New York- UN (PANA) -- The UN needs some $115 million from donors to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Sudan's war-ravished Darfur region, a five-fold increase of an earlier appeal for help to over 700,000 people uprooted from their homes by civil conflict and an ethnic cleansing campaign against black Africans. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- Several conflicts have erupted within certain families of former Burundian exiles because some husbands have returned with new wives from neighbouring Tanzania. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- Some 165 Congolese nationals who found refuge in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 1998, accompanied by a UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative, returned to Brazzaville through the Beach Wednesday, Radio Congo said Thursday. Full text...